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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - Isaiah 21:5 - 21:5
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Prepare the table; furnish it with meats and drinks, as it follows. The prophet foretells what the Babylonians would be doing when their’ enemies were at their doors, that they would give up themselves to feasting and security.
Watch in the watch-tower, to give us notice of any approaching danger, that in the mean time we may more securely indulge ourselves in mirth and pleasures.
Arise, ye princes; either,
1. Ye Medes and Persians; whilst your enemies the Babylonians are feasting securely, prepare to make your assault. Or,
2. Ye princes of Babylon; arise from the table and run to your arms. Which sudden alarm and change of their posture proceeded from tidings out of the watch-tower, as may be gathered from the former clause,
and is more fully expressed in the following verses.
Annoint the shield; prepare yourselves and your arms for the battle approaching: The shield is put for all their weapons of offence and defence. They used to anoint their shields with oil, partly to preserve ahd polish them, and partly to make them slippery, that their enemies’ darts might not fasten in them, but slide off from them.